Quick history

Armbian started as a personal hobby project back in 2013 without any big plans. The project started on a Github as a simple script for creating a Debian image. There was no project name nor dedicated website. All project communications were done via personal blog post comments, email and 3rd party forums. Work on Debian for Cubieboard, which was the first board supported by the project, got a lot of attention already in the early days. 1200 comments on the blog and 1200 posts on the Cubieforums.

The project aim is to provide the universal Debian based operating system for ARM single board computers. Giving project its own identity lead to the name “armbian” while its website was just a quick duplicate of the previous personal blog. Since we are focused on boards most intimate details, we never considered investing much into the website itself.

You can find out more about the Armbian’s history from this presentation (45min).

Why this upgrade?

In a few years project expanded in many ways, while a website remained on an amateur level. No real back-end, single user, cheap design. Each time we bumped to the website limitations we realized that instant patching won’t get us far. The project, on the other hand, is five years old and today we know much better, what do we need. We decided to start from scratch.

When did we start?

Activities started in mid last year, while the actual work on the design and coding, started by the end of the year. We had to find right CSS/UX partner and lead the project. They successfully listened to our wishes, added their extensive web design and UX knowledge and come up with a minimalistic, good-looking and functional website.

What is new?

Everything. Any click on the website was considered over and over again. The main philosophy behind this was “Don’t Make Me Think“! Especially we focused on the board download page, where we tend to provide exact right amount of information and links for deep technical info, documentation, …

What is special?

A lot of attention was focused towards powerful and simple-to-use back-end. This will make life easier for those, who participate or wanted to join in keeping the board data accurate. Only together we can keep data on the website up to date. It’s little work and some responsibility. You don’t need to be a hacker for this role and if you like to take over some board(s), drop us a note.

You can browse or search to find, if the device you have, is supported. When you select your device or if you came on the website from a search engine, you can see what we provide, a summary of important hardware and software specifications, tested 3rd party hardware and board specific remarks. You can search for similar devices based on their specifications, see other makers work, … If you are installing Armbian for the very first time, there is a short FAQ to get going.

Is website complete?

This website redesign was yet another subprojects that run simultaneously around Armbian. Is the website complete? Certainly not, but it is matured enough to start using it and to move the old one into the archives. If you see any troubles, you are welcome to comment.

Credits go to Gorazd from Prima produkcija and usual suspects: Tido, ChWe, TonyMac, Zador, Thomas, Da Xue, Igor and all others who raised their voices and help to shape our new WWW.

Enjoy the new look and feel!